Keith Urban Taps Random Fan to Sing ‘American Pie’ and It’s Magic!

Dylan Brekke couldn't convince his friends to hang out over the weekend, so he made a new friend in Keith Urban. The 20-year-old Long Beach, Calif., native says getting to sing "American Pie" with the country superstar was absolutely as random as it seems.

He's still buzzing about the experience. Brekke and Urban shared the stage for a song at the Sayer's Club in Los Angeles on Friday night (April 27), one night before the superstar was a headliner at Stagecoach Festival in Indio, Calif. Brekke, an aspiring singer-songwriter, saw Urban's message about a popup show on Instagram and took a shot at getting in, going alone when his friends wouldn't ditch their girlfriends to join him. Once inside, he made friends with the people around him, casually mentioning his dream to pursue music as a career to a few people, including Urban when there was a quiet moment.

"I shout out to Keith — and I'm in the second row — 'You inspired me to pick up the guitar!'" Brekke recalls. "And he turns to me and says, in his cool kick-ass Australian accent, 'I'm the reason you picked up a guitar, mate?'"

While Brekke mostly plays low-profile venues like coffee shops for audiences that might consist of his mom, dad and a single patron looking up from her laptop from time to time (his exaggeration, not ours), he did once luck into a direct support slot for Don McClean. During the brief conversation with Urban he mentioned this, and before he knew it an entire venue of people he'd chatted up were urging him to get on stage.

A few hours later, Urban was tagging him on Instagram in a video post that has more than 200,000 views as of Monday afternoon.

"And this was before I could even post anything!" the aspiring country singer says. Eventually he did, offering four clips from his moment:

Ironically, Brekke's mom was at Stagecoach when this happened, very much looking forward to Urban's headlining set on Saturday night. So at the end of the duet, Urban autographed Brekke's T-shirt for her.

"He signed my shirt, 'Hi mom! Keith Urban,'" he says, laughing. "Keith ... I just wanna say thank you from the bottom of my heart. You and Nicole are so sweet and the fact that you saw potential in me, I'll forever be grateful," Brekke adds.